Post navigation

Mets Chat Room: Brandon Knight tries to right the ship edition.

It has come to this for the Mets. Brandon Knight has been called upon to pull the Mets out of their funk. It has been three straight losses, so you can’t really call it a collapse. But, it has also been four losses in five games, so you tell me.

The bullpen crashed and burned Sunday, Pedro Martinez showed heart alone wasn’t enough Monday, and Monday and Tuesday the offense went into hibernation mode. Each of the past four losses carries a reminder from how they collapsed last September.

The Mets are asking a lot from Knight tonight. This has to be a game where the offense tees off, but there’s been no signs of that lately.

Brandon Knight was a great point guard for Pitt several years ago. Too bad its not the same guy. That Brandon Knight was all heart and fire. This guy better be of the same mold. Still want to know why these pansied starters can’t go on 3 days rest one time like the wife beater Brett Myers just did. Leadership thy name does not exist on the NY Mets.

They can’t go on 3 days rest because they had a double header on Saturday with no off day until the rest of the year.
The Phillies… sure they had a double header on Sunday but they also had an off day on Monday and have one next week Thursday as well.
Different situations.

With that said the bats better come out swingin with Mr. Knight on the mound.

You have this wrong Benny. On 3 days rest Santana would have pitched tonight Benny. Niese would pitch tomorrow and then the rest would be on four days as normal. Either Santana didn’t step or Minaya wouldn’t risk the move for his big pay check guy. Either way, Nobody steps up on this team. Myers pitched on 3 days rest Sunday before their off day, so they wouldn’t have to pitch a bum like Knight. This is a joke like Lawrence last year.

obviously it didn’t come in quite as big a spot, but perhaps that lead off home run, like dykstra’s in game 3 of the ’86 series, will be the spark the mets need to get out from behind the proverbial 8 ball.

Gil: Last week they modified MLB to give road and home for TV as well as radio. I think its for the 800 and 1.2 feeds only and not yet the 400. I’ve had the MLB.TV feed for 2 years so I can watch when I’m away. Not talking baseball seems to have brought good luck 2 HRs, of course only 2 runs. I think they need at least 10 tonight.

I knew what the Mets were getting into with Hagin. I did some on-air work for an Albuquerque all-sports radio station in the mid-’90s and we were a Rockies affiliate station, so I had more than my fill of Wayne Hagin.
He sounded too polished then and still does today. Phony as a $3 bill.

Fernando Tatis, WFAN says, has a “class A” separation of his shoulder, which means no surgery. He’ll be able to resume baseball activities in 2-3 weeks, making it a longshot that he’s be able to be art of any possible post-season.

Knight was incredibly lucky Zimmerman didn’t put that 1-1 helicopter he threw him into the bleachers.
Manuel may end up very sorry for giving Knight this inning which I’m guessing few of us would’ve given him.

Well, thank the Lords of Kobol Knight escaped trouble.
But that has to be his last inning.
I’ll give hive props for five good innings, but now we know how he may work best — in short spurts, in relief.
Maybe he’s the longman out of the ‘pen we need — I’d take my chances with him over Heilman in a relief role.

Hey JD, something occurred to me today….why are they holding Niese until Monday? Wouldn’t it make more sense for him to go Friday, and then the following Wednesday (allowing that the final three days of the season go Pedro-Pelfrey-Santana)? Otherwise, you’ve got a rookie or fill-in starter going the final Saturday of the season. Just doesn’t seem to make sense…

I love Niese, but I’ll take a diminished Pedro with his experience in a psuedo playoff game. He can give you a QS just on guile, and if they start hitting that could be enough. Can’t put a rookie in a game like that.

What the hell is WRONG WITH THESE GUYS?? Seriously…that was an awful pitch there and they got lucky that the park was big enough to hold it. I mean…these guys, on talent alone, do not SUCK this much. It’s almost as if they try to throw meatballs!

You know what pisses me off about the whole Heilman thing? Every couple of weeks all season, Jerry (or Willie before him) would bring him into an important game and thing “well i’ll just go fishing and see if he’s fixed”. Why? So he can look like a genius by catching lightning in a bottle at the right time. And then he can take credit by saying “I never stopped believing in Heilman, I was always behind him”. It’s crap. He’s not a reliever and he never should have been one. His problem has always been that he is incapable of being perfect at times, and all successful relievers must be perfect to be successful. Heilman can’t do it. If he was a starter, at least he can give up some hits and runs and stil have his outing be considered a success. If he goes somewhere else and has any kind of success as a starter, someone in the mets front office needs to be fired. I hope they are right that he can’t handle being a starter pitching 100+ innings, but it wouldn’t shock me if they are wrong.

Jay L.: It wouldn’t shock me, either. He had some success as a starter, but went to the pen with him when they put Bannister in the rotation in 2006. They never gave him another chance and that was a mistake. I don’t think Heilman will win the Cy Young elsewhere, but I think he’ll become a viable starter if given the chance.-JD

I ask again: What the &^%$ is wrong with David Wright??!!
Damn, David!
Don’t take yourt piss-poor at-bats out on the field with you. Make the ^%$#$%^ play and stop your (*&^&%^$ pouting, (*&^&^%$%$#$!!!!!

Has anyone out there ever seen a more unreliable bullpen than this?
Damn Omar Minaya’s “hope for the best” philosophy that has given us a crap bullpen full of *&*&^%^ stiffs, an old broken down left fielder, an old broken down No. 2 starter, and an old broken down second baseman.

You know, it should be noted that its not like the mets have completely neglected the bullpen in their planning. Two of their last three top draft picks were relief pitchers (and Joe Smith may be their best right now)

With a bullpen this crappy why do they even bother? These guys couldn’t even get little leaguers out they suck so much. I mean honestly…on paper they have talent, so why the hell do they CHOKE SO BAD???? And BTW…Im blaming Smith and that choker Feliciano but it’s the ultimate choker, David Wright’s fault that this inning got started

Jay L.: It should have been. You knew Heilman, Schoeneweis and Feliciano were coming back. Sosa was a mistake. Their thinking was with Santana and the expected development of Maine and Perez that it would pitch less innings and be better that way.-JD

I liked Knight tonight. And, I was impressed that Manuel had the faith to give him the extra inning. … On the down side, there’s still the pen questions and I don’t see Heilman getting fixed by the end of the season.-JD

Maybe so, but it seems like he gets way to nervous in big spots for a professional baseball player. One of my biggest pet peeves is he and the rest of the Mets (for that matter) never seem to be able to hit a freakin’ sacrifice fly….don’t they teach that in PSL?

RMKMets: Sad, but true on your second point. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all had the Nationals tied the game. I thought Zimmerman’s ball was extra bases. If it were, they could still be playing.-JD

Wright is no better than ARod…he hits when the pressure isn’t on…when it’s on he K’s and swings at balls out of the zone, and now he’s even began choking in the field.

When he said that crap last nite I could tell it was a bad sign. Those are the words of a choker in denial. At least admit…”We stink right now” and say “Im ready to man up turn it around.” Instead he gave a cornball speech and backed it up with play that was similar

JD: The only reason Knight was given that additional chance was because Manuel knows he can’t trust anyone in that pen. I mean seriously…as a whole they have to look at themselves in the mirror and reevaluate things…it’s not a talent thing at all…they just all mentally are weak..

It shouldn’t take seven pitchers in one night to subdue a last place club like the Nationals.
The real fortunate thing is that we survived an outing by Brandon Knight.
My biggest hope now is that Aaron Heilman gets abducted by aliens.

Jay L: I love D-Wright but we’re all very hard on him because he raised the bar high for himself and established expectations.
Leaving aside the strikeout with runners on the corners and one out, he absolutely can’t take that at-bat into the field with him.
He makes that routine play on the Milledge ground ball in the 9th and it’s a much easier inning.
And NO Mets fan wants to hear Wright making myopic, borderline Alfred E. Neumanesque comments about how this time of year, win or lose, is fun and that he knows the team will pull through in the end.
After what we fans went through last year, he should know better than to make such a ridiculous comment.
All we ask of our team is that they be as passionate about winning a championship as we are about them winning one.

On the plus side tonight, Jose Reyes finally earned his money. And, it was more than just the leadoff homer. He’d been silent most of the month. If I’m taking things out of the game, that’s a big one for me.-JD

JD: The way to “fix” Heilman is simple: Don’t run him out there anymore.
Period.
Regular season, post-season, winter, spring, summer or fall.
Then trade him, release him, flush his sorry ass down the toilet, I don’t care.
He has been a liability all year and shows no hope of ever being an asset to this baseball team.

I don’t know about Heilman’s ever turning it around somewhere else. I think he maxed out his value in 2006 in that time between Duaner Sanchez’s injury and Game 4 of the 2006 NLCS.
Regardless of what happens this year, the Mets need a totally new pitching staff outside of Johan, Mike Pelfrey and John Maine.